Projects per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
Prof. Niamh O’Connell conducts farm animal health and welfare research in collaboration with post-doctoral research assistants (Maeve Palmer and Mary Baxter) and PhD students. Niamh has specific expertise in applied, on-farm research work, and much of her research is funded by agri-food companies. One of her research themes focusses on the welfare of poultry, and, in particular in recent years, on designing optimum housing environments for broiler chickens. This includes work on the provision of different types of environmental enrichment (such as natural light, perches, foraging objects and dustbaths). She is also involved in commercially-funded research to develop novel biocidal products for the agri-food sector, including products to treat digital dermatitis in dairy cows. She also has a strong interest in developing new methods of assessing welfare, including the use of abattoir-based assessments to determine lifetime the welfare status of pigs.
She has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers and is a member of the EU Platform for Animal Welfare.
Teaching
Prof O'Connell is the Queens University co-ordinator of the BSc Agricultural Technology degree. This degree is delivered through a collaborative partnership with the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise. She also acts as Advisor of Studies for students on this pathway. She also co-ordinates the undergraduate module in Farm Animal Health and Welfare (BIO3106)
She teaches within the following pathways/modules:
- MSc Animal Behaviour and Welfare
- MSc Advanced Food Safety
- Farm Animal Health and Welfare (undergraduate module for Agricultural Technology and Zoology students)
- Advances in Crop and Animal Science and Technology (undergraduate module for Agricultural Technology students)
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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Network
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R5829GFS: Influence of perch design on the welfare of commercial broiler chickens
15/05/2015 → 30/09/2016
Project: Research
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Animal welfare research – progress to date and future prospects
Boyle, L., Conneely, M., Kennedy, E., O'Connell, N., O'Driscoll, K. & Earley, B., 26 Feb 2022, (Early online date) In: Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research. 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Open AccessFile18 Downloads (Pure) -
Automated detection and quantification of contact behaviour in pigs using deep learning
Alameer, A., Buijs, S., O'Connell, N., Dalton, L., Larsen, M., Pedersen, L. & Kyriazakis, I., Dec 2022, In: Biosystems Engineering. 224, p. 118-130 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Downloads (Pure) -
Effect of reduced dietary protein level on finishing pigs’ harmful social behaviour before and after an abrupt dietary change
McAuley, M., Buijs, S., Muns, R., Gordon, A., Palmer, M., Meek, K. & O'Connell, N., Nov 2022, In: Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 256, 8 p., 105762.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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A comparison of fast growing broiler chickens with a slower-growing breed type reared on Higher Welfare commercial farms
Baxter, M., Richmond, A., Lavery, U. & O'Connell, N. E., 04 Nov 2021, In: PLoS One. 16, 11, e0259333.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile113 Downloads (Pure) -
Food environment intervention improves food knowledge, wellbeing and dietary habits in primary school children: Project Daire, a randomised-controlled, factorial design cluster trial
Brennan, S. F., Lavelle, F., Moore, S. E., Dean, M., McKinley, M. C., McCole, P., Hunter, R. F., Dunne, L., O'Connell, N. E., Cardwell, C. R., Elliott, C. T., McCarthy, D. & Woodside, J. V., 04 Feb 2021, In: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 18, 18 p., 23.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Citations (Scopus)102 Downloads (Pure)
Datasets
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Dataset for "A comparison of fast growing broiler chickens with a slower-growing breed type"
Baxter, M. (Creator) & O'Connell, N. (Creator), Queen's University Belfast, 06 Sep 2021
DOI: 10.17034/7fdd4ccb-a0d4-413c-aec1-6579c1d07fae
Dataset
File
Prizes
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Shortlisted for the 2021 Vice-Chancellor’s Research Prizes competition in the Research Engagement category for Project Daire
Woodside, Jayne (Recipient), McCarthy, D. (Recipient), Brennan, Sarah (Recipient), Moore, Sarah (Recipient), Lavelle, F. (Recipient), McCole, P. (Recipient), Cardwell, Christopher (Recipient), Elliott, Christopher (Recipient), McKinley, Michelle (Recipient), Hunter, Ruth (Recipient), O'Connell, Niamh (Recipient), Dean, Moira (Recipient) & Dunne, Laura (Recipient), 2021
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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Presentation of FlockFocus project and demo.
Paul Miller (Advisor) & Niamh O'Connell (Advisor)
12 Jan 2023Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Hearing expert for EFSA
Niamh O'Connell (Advisor)
Nov 2020 → Jun 2022Activity: Consultancy types › Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups
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Understanding the benefits of natural light and other types of environmental enrichments for broiler chickens
Niamh O'Connell (Advisor)
25 Oct 2018Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Investigating environmental enrichment options for commercial broiler chickens
Niamh O'Connell (Advisor)
16 Dec 2017Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Broiler chicken welfare - next generation environmental enrichment and technologies to measure
Niamh O'Connell (Advisor)
07 Sep 2017Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
Press / Media
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Interview for BBC Radio Ulster Sunday Sequence show
07/08/2022
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Article on broiler chicken research for Alumni Office webpage
25/07/2022
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Vision-based system tracks, analyzes chicken welfare
Niamh O'Connell, Jesus Martinez-del-Rincon, Paul Miller & Niall McLaughlin
27/05/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities